How do you build a large audience on MySpace? Part VIII
As I wind this series down I want to talk about the ability to examine what you are doing with your profile. I have touched on a lot of these points throughout the series but I really wanted to take the time to examine them up close because they are rather important.
Your Profile Picture Is Important
When I started on MySpace I had a regular picture of me up, nothing special just something that was taken while I was out drinking with my friends. Here is my original MySpace picture:
When I decided that I wanted to market my blogs a little I kept the same picture up and as I began to market my blog I was getting a lot of push back. Women automatically thought I was trying to hit on them by sending them any type of messages and guys just usually don’t want to talk to random guys messaging them in general. I had to face the fact that having my name and picture didn’t separate me from the pack at all.
So I decided to switch it up and went to:
David “Freaking” Hasselhoff
I ended up keeping the “Freaking” in my name and switching it to various characters and celebrities with corresponding videos and quotes on my page. It became a running gimmick and was a good source of entertainment for people on my friends list. There was a visible bump in traffic to my blogs and people were more apt to check out my profile in general because of this. Making this change was a catalyst in my growth.
Make Sure to Keep Continuity
Keeping the “freaking” in the name was important though because it kept continuity. Even though I kept some sort of continuity there was a a little bit of confusion when I would change it and would always lose a handful of subscribers the very next day, I can’t imagine if I didn’t have the continuity and what would happen.
If you are going to change your pictures a lot, try to keep some source of continuity when you do it. Either keep the same name or something of that ilk.
Whatever You Do Don’t Use Your Web URL as a Name or Generic Avatar for Your MySpace Picture
I know this bucks conventional wisdom in the blogging community where it is considered a good practice to leave your url as your name when you comment on other blogs. In my original case study I talked about my client receiving better results by having a female on their profile and making the profile a “person” as opposed to a website. While I know people want to build a brand with their blogs using a standard picture from your blog or using the url as the name comes off immediately as spammy to a lot of MySpace users.
Examine When You Post Your Bulletins
Over a week’s period of time keep a log of when you post your bulletins and the amount of blogs views you get you post them. Make sure you vary the times in which you post your bulletins, try it in different combinations and see what the response is each time. This is a good way to tell what is the most effective times to post your bulletins daily. I found that I would get 100 more hits by posting my bulletins at certain midday times versus earlier in the mornings, it is worth playing around with this a bit.
Whatever you do, never get complacent. Always look at what you are doing and ask why things are they way they are and what you can do to make it better. By constantly challenging yourself and spending a couple of extra minutes a week
Next time: Tying it all together
